Welcome to the worlds of Steven Michael Harris (Author, Theorist, Educator and Performer).
Much of learning in the nervous system occurs with the changes of sensitivity that occur in the synapses and through other mechanisms. Cellular decisions of one moment affect the cellular decisions of the next. There are constant changes of greater or lesser receptivity to excitation and/or inhibition. These changes move around the system mathematically much like liquid seeking a path through constantly shifting solids (without the influence of gravity). Thinking is the movement of changes in sensitivity throughout the nervous system. Some changes are very flexible and some "harden" into more "solid" patterns of reaction.
Some cells communicate with a very large number of cells from very different realms of information. The kinds of calculations involved in some centers of the brain with many of these kinds of cells that deal with diverse information involve much more conflict of impulses than other centers of the brain or of the impulses that influence other kinds of cells. The greatest conflict would occur in the cells that have the greatest numbers of connections and the greatest diversity of information coming in. [See the Essay: What is Emotion?]
Because of the mathematical factor that changes of sensitivity towards inhibition have an edge over the changes of sensitivity towards excitation in a cellular event (See the definition of Cellular Event), and because of the greater conflicts of information that occur in the cells with the greatest numbers of connection and the greatest diversity of the kind of information involved, some regions of the brain will statistically be more likely to collect greater sensitivity towards inhibition than other parts of the brain.
Changes in sensitivity can be temporary (especially after periods of great activity) and develop into permanent changes over time.
This change towards greater receptivity to inhibition collects in these various regions of the brain. (This collection of inhibition in a region of the brain is a collection of stress.)
When you take into consideration a comprehensive account of the way the brain is wired you begin to be able to predict the statistical relationships of the numbers of people in a population experiencing the various disorders and you can predict the various groupings of symptoms in a the particular disorders. Many other mechanisms must be discussed to be able to begin understanding how such predictions are possible.
One of those mechanisms is that a cell communicates it's own state to the cells that are receiving it's information downline.
Stress passes from cell to cell but only relative to the percentage of influence that cell has on the cell receiving its impulses. So stress can be a problem in a region of the brain and the connections of that region to other regions will have a percentage of influence to express that stress to the other regions as well.
One of the mechanisms that must be considered is what happens when the stress or inhibition reaches a point where the inhibitory signals grow to the point where it stops with a cell or a region of the brain that has become so inhibited that it no longer sends such signals because it is inhibited into a kind of "coma." (Particular cellular events are in a coma. See Essay: The "Cellular Event." This coma could be expressed by the nature of that cellular event being a very short high-frequency firing that does not last long enough to influence the firings of other cells in an excitatory fashion downline.) Another one of the mechanisms is how the brain can temporarily vote to inhibit such regions beyond the ability to fire in order to open up the ability of other regions to fire (although without the influence of the information that is processed in the inhibited region) because this inhibited kind of firing is on the pain end of the scale. [See Essay: A Cell's Pleasure and Pain]
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Copyright © 1997-2008
steven michael harris
Lexington, virginia, usa